Marketing for better results in 2014

The September edition of the Business Review Canada is now live!

By: Adam Groff 

For many businesses, 2014 means a new year of possibilities, including taking the opportunity to revamp marketing efforts.

Besides, marketing that's stale and out-of-date certainly reads that way to potential customers. And, in terms of business essentials, marketing can literally make or break a company.

With business success in mind, here are five tips that'll put your company's marketing back in the spotlight:

1. User Friendly Marketing

Attracting customers to your company's site via eye-catching, unique campaigns is great, but your website itself shouldn't trade uniqueness for navigability.

In other words, customers must be able to find what they're looking for, especially if they're looking for something promised to them through your marketing.

If your company's marketing takes more than three click-through attempts for customers to get from the initial landing page to the information at hand, it's time to trim the fat.

Easy-to-use, non-disappearing navigation bars and a left to right horizontal webpage layout are great steps in the user-friendly direction.

Read related content:

• Using Social Media for Business Is No Longer An Option
• Five Reasons To Blog More
• Five Tips for Increasing Website Traffic

2. There's No Such Thing as Being Too Social

If you're not convinced that social media can take your company's marketing to all new heights for the New Year, you probably need to reassess what online networking means for business.

Considering Google now takes into account the social media activity of websites in terms of page rankings, social networking is simply part of marketing best practices nowadays.

If your business seldom networks socially, try making worthwhile, informative updates daily.

3. Strive for Quality Content That Goes Above and Beyond

If your company doesn't strive for quality with every update, post, and every single bit of content that it publishes, then your marketing efforts are all for nothing.

In fact, why not make it a New Year's marketing resolution to ensure everything you market is backed by quality content.

Sure, a consistent stream of quality content takes a lot of time and hard work, but there's no other option. If time is a problem, make it your company's resolution to hire a dedicated marketing or content specialist. And remember: quality content is the lifeblood of your marketing, so make it count.

4. Try Different Marketing Avenues

Speaking of content, when it's in the written form, it's pretty effective. But, branching out to photo and video is a great way to welcome the marketing New Year.

If your company hasn't done so already, join sites like YouTube and Instagram and start capturing your audience on a visual level.

5. Promote Company Trustworthiness

When marketing your company, make a conscious effort to also promote the fact your company can be trusted.

After all, just because your company has a website doesn't mean it's more trustworthy than any of the other millions of company websites.

If you're part of a Better Business Bureau or any other online protection program, flaunt it with a seal of approval.

Likewise, customer testimonial pages go a long way in terms of trust, especially video testimonials.

Ring in the New Year by following some of the marketing tips above and find out just how much they'll improve your company's promotional efforts.

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including social media, ripoffreport.com, and marketing.